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Ryan Popper HS055 Monday at 8am Drugs: A Mechanism of Imperialism Prior to the sixteenth century, the only drug

widely popular in European society was fermented alcohol, mainly beer. As European countries began exploring and settling the Far East and West, they were exposed to a number of drugs such as coffee and tobacco, which upon being introduced in Europe became increasingly popular. Europeans were then able to utilize these drugswith their nervous system affecting attributesas mechanism of imperialism. The production and consumption of coffee, tobacco and opium on the home front and abroad enabled European society to effectively march on with a campaign of imperialism: creating incredible advances in European society at the expense of foreign countries. As European society began evolving after the Middle Ages, countless changes were realized in the everyday life of citizens; acting as a lubricant for these gears of change, coffee became increasingly popular in Europe during the seventeenth century. First found in Arabic civilizations for its ability to mentally stimulate its users, coffee was the perfect enabler for the changing role man was playing in society. While the work of the Medieval bourgeois man was predominately physical in nature and performed outside, the emergence of factories in seventeenth century meant that work was largely sedentary and performed indoors.1 Through its ability to speed perception and clear judgment by affecting the central nervous system, coffee provided the stimulant workers needed to perform work that was mentally, and no longer physically, taxing. As coffee increased in popularity, coffeehouses emerged as revolutionary centers of rational and intellectual thinking. Unlike the pub houses that existed in Europe for centuries
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Schivelbusch, pg.38

before, these new centers of social gathering provided a sober environment where intellectually stimulated individuals discussed such wide-ranging topics as business, art, medicine and literature. In the Womens Petition Against Coffee published in London in 1647, a cohort of females expressed their grievances for coffee because of the impact it had on their husbands, complaining that at coffeehouses, they frequently have hot Contests about most Important Subjects; as what colour the Red Seas is of; whether the Great Turk be a Lutheran or a Calvinist.2 While the women may have disliked the fact that they were receiving less attention in the bedroom from their more sober husbands, it is these very conversation topics that made the coffeehouses so much different than the pubs that came before. As Schivelbusch details in Tastes of Paradise, Sobriety and moderation were the order of the day for the coffeehouse: proper manners were required, talk was to be held to a subdued and considerate levelit was, in short, everything the taverns were not.3 In a time that still did not have daily newspapers, coffeehouses acted as incredibly transforming areas of public thought. Coffeehouses thus played an instrumental role cultivating the intellectual ideas and theories that led to the revolutions and movements of the Age of Enlightenmentarguably one of the most historically significant movements in history for its far reaching cultural and political impacts. Whereas coffee had a largely positive impact on European society, enabling the countrys citizens to acclimate to new working conditions and providing a sober alternative to fermented alcoholic beverages of the time, its procurement from foreign lands did little good abroad. Initially purchased directly from Arabian societies, many European countries soon began growing coffee on plantations in their own colonies in order to avoid the flow of cash to Arabia. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) established a small town on the island of Java in 1619,
2 3

Womens Petition Against Coffee Schivelbusch, pg. 52 2

and enforced their mandate on local rulers to grow more spicesalthough not initially, in due time coffee became one of the colonies great exports. The VOC destroyed productive trees and massacred entire communities for refusing to cooperate4 with its demands to grow the exotic spices and coffee that were in such high demand in Europe. Through the devastation of indigenous lands and slaughter of the native people, the VOC was able successfully supply the increasing demand for coffee and other spices in Europe. In much of the same way that coffee enabled Europeans to assimilate to the demands of a changing society, tobacco served a similar role. Originally tobacco found its way into European society in the sixteenth century after Columbus discovered natives in the Americas smoking the dried weed. Although its calming effect on the user is quite the opposite of coffees ability to stimulate, the two had a common goal: to achieve the reorientation of the human organism to the primacy of mental labor.5 Thus tobaccos uprising into the mainstream mirrored that of coffee, in its ability to aid in the most widespread transition European society had yet to face, as the work of the middle class became far less physically demanding, and more so mentally. In addition to its capacity to transform the human organism into a more effective piece of the societal machine that was becoming far more mechanized, tobacco also introduced Europeans to an entirely new form of drug consumptionsmoking. Before the seventeenth century when tobacco emerged as an increasingly popular drug, smoking in European society was a nameless activity, referred to out of confusion as drinking smoke or drinking tobacco.6 This entirely new concept of consumption through inhalation translated into increased efficiencies at the factories, as workers felt the effects nearly instantaneously; they were able to be reinvigorated in only a few minutes without taking substantial time away from their factory work. In order to
4 5

Burbank, pg. 159-160 Schivelbusch, pg. 110 6 Schivelbusch, pg. 97 3

supply the European demands of tobacco, countries such as England looked to their American colonies. Europeans insatiable demand for tobacco played an instrumental role in fueling the need for labor in these colonies, which was fulfilled by the millions of slaves brought from Africa. Before the establishment of the far western colonies, the Atlantic slave trade exported approximately 2,000 slaves annually from Africa to the Caribbean and Americas.7 However, as the production of cash crops, including tobacco, fueled increasing demand in Europe, slave exports rose drastically; in the seventeenth century, around 10,000 slaves annually were shipped to the Americas in order to provide labor and in eighteenth century this figure increased to 55,000 annually.8 In its entirety approximately 12 million slaves were moved from Africa across the Atlantic, and an additional 4 million died resisting capture or during captivity before reaching their intended destination.9 The African continent thus lost much of its labor productivity, as approximately two-thirds of all slaves were young men between the ages of fourteen and thirtyfive.10 Nations such as Angola were left with predominately female populations, which caused societal changes including the adoption of polygyny. As African kingdoms began to realize the economic bounty they could receive for providing these slaves to European traders, many turned against one another. For example, the kingdom of Dahomey was able to prosper and expand territorially because of its armys utilization of European firearms to capture slaves from its unarmed neighbors.11 The slave trades impact on Africa from the sixteenth to eighteenth century was absolutely devastating, as it pitted African kingdoms against one another and caused inconceivable long-term demographic and societal changes that continue to handicap the
7 8

Bentley, pg. 561 Burbank, pg. 178 9 Bentley, pg. 561 10 Bentley, pg. 563 11 Bentley, pg. 563 4

continent to this day. The negative impacts of the slave trade were not only realized in Africa, but also in the areas where colonies were established. With reckless abandon, European colonists decimated indigenous cultivation, supplanting native crops with the crops of tobacco, sugar, andmore so in the eighteenth century than the seventeenthcoffee, in much the same way that was done in areas such as the Dutch-controlled Java in Indonesia. Although opium use within Europe today cannot contest with the everlasting popularity of coffee or tobacco, its production and exchange in the eighteenth century had progressed European society at the expense of the Chinese. In the seventeenth century, Europeans traded with the Chinese for luxury goods such as tea, silk and porcelain;12 without any Chinese demand for European goods, silver bullion was used as payment for such goods. In the eighteenth century, as the British East India Company (EIC) attempted to follow the principles of mercantilism and achieve greater profits in their trade dealings with China, they introduced opium as a means of payment. As the EIC flooded Chinese markets with the drug, opium consumption increased seventyfold between 1767 and 1850.13 All members of society, from the lowest to the highest ranking, actively used the highly addictive drug. Europe enjoyed incredible benefits stemming from the success of opium. The EIC had found a means of increasing revenues and profits substantially through reversing the previously draining cash flow to China. Produced on plantations the EIC owned in India, opium was extremely cheap to manufacture. After production, the drug was shipped to China where it was sold for Chinese silver coin. For the first time, Europe was able to increase its supply of monetary metal through trade with China, rather than deplete it. Aside from purely economic benefits, the trade enabled Europe to extend its colonial power over the Chinese, as Schivelbusch
12 13

Schivelbusch, pg. 215 Schivelbusch, pg. 219 5

makes note of in Tastes of Paradise, Someone dreaming opium dreams is not going to formulate anticolonial thoughts, much less act.14 Leaving its users heavily sedated, the drug stagnated Chinese society, as addicts became non-revolting, non-contributing members of society. As the socially destructive nature of the drugs usage became apparent, the Chinese government attempted to end the illicit trade in 1839.15 Unwilling to relinquish the steady profits that the trade created for England, British military forces ascended upon China. After a terrible defeat, the Chinese were forced to sign a number of pacts which had devastating impacts. Not only was the opium trade made legal, but the Chinese Qing government signed over their right to protect domestic industries by levying tariffs. A number of previously restricted Chinese ports also became open to Europe and Christian mission establishments throughout China were permitted. In addition to the catastrophic losses in societal productivity incurred by the addictive drug itself, these consequential mandates had devastating political, religious, and economic impacts on the Chinese, and only helped to reinforce Europeans position of supremacy amongst world powers. Thus the impact of these drugs is undeniable. The consumption of all three drugs brought considerable economic wealth to Europe. Tobacco and coffee both enabled man to successfully transplant himself in the industrializing world, from the field to the factory. As European society became more evolved into its modern state, foreign countries were left in shambles. The erection of plantation colonies in the Americas, Caribbean and Indonesia eliminated countless native cultures, and their productive resources. Africa, too, was left divided and drained of human capital. The incredible profits and power that Europeans were able to obtain over China were a direct result of the opium trade. Through these drugs, Europe was able to achieve its
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Schivelbusch, pg. 222 Bentley, pg. 717 6

imperialistic objectives: the consumption, production, and trade of coffee, tobacco, and opium, enabled Europe to prosper, while the foreign nations touched by the very same drugs were left in a state of ruin.

Bibliography Bentley, Jerry, and Herbert Ziegler. Traditions and Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past, Volume 2, From 1500 to the Present. New York: McGrawHill, 2011. Print. Burbank, Jane, and Fredrick Cooper. Empires in World History. Princeton: Princeton, 2010. Print. Schivelbusch, Wolfgang. Tastes of Paradise: A Social History of Spices, Stimulants and Intoxicants. New York: Pantheon: 1992. Print. The Womens Petition Against Coffee. London, 1674.

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